However, when the email confirmation came through, both names were incorrect, with the surnames being spelt as ‘Popa’, and because more than one airline was involved in the booking, a name change would not be possible.

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This information was shown to Expedia by the Pope family, but Expedia denied the request, saying that it needed to see authorisation from the airlines to make changes.

BA then suggested that the family ask Expedia to decouple the BA and Air New Zealand portions of the booking, incurring penalty charges.

If that was possible, then the names could be changed on the BA flights while the second leg flights could be dealt with separately.

Ms Pope said: “Expedia’s customer service was poor and it just felt like we came to a dead end every time we contacted them - they maintained it was my grandma’s fault but never gave us access to the recording of the phone call so we could hear for ourselves.

“It’s a shame that such a huge company wasn’t particularly willing to help customers spending a significant amount of money.”

She added: “For most of the time, the only solution Expedia offered was to cancel the initial booking, refunding only the tax of approximately £500, and rebooking the flights which had gone up in price to about £8000 - costing my grandparents a total of around £12500.”

After almost a fortnight of pressure from the public and Telegraph Money, Expedia finally arranged for new correct names to be issued and covered the entire cost of the trip for the couple “as a gesture of goodwill and by way of an apology”.

Ms Pope said: “I’m so glad we got it all sorted, but it was incredibly frustrating and it was a real family effort to get everything fixed!

“My uncles were calling and emailing both Expedia and BA, we were all trying to get through to them on social media too.

“What’s awful is that my grandparents couldn’t have done that themselves and luckily had us to fight on their behalf - but if an elderly couple didn’t have any family members I don’t know if they would have got the same issue resolved.”

She added: “I think Expedia could put their consumers before profits and I would like to see them do that. Their frontline customer service staff were unable to help us which is why things escalated so much and that shouldn't be necessary - a little more compassion and flexibility would help.”

Mr and Mrs Pope, who now live in Somerset, met in Plymouth in the 1950’s while working at the much-loved Dingles store.

This year will be their 60 wedding anniversary.

The couple have now landed safely in New Zealand and are said to be having “a great time.”

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An Expedia spokesperson said: “Expedia arranged for new tickets to be issued, covering the entire cost for both flights as a gesture of goodwill and by way of an apology, ensuring that Mr and Mrs Pope were able to enjoy their trip to New Zealand as planned."